Valves , the city of the Vénètes ( Breton Gwened in , pronounced in common the close relations, and Vann in Gallo) is a city, chief town of the Morbihan (“small sea” into Breton, name coming from the gulf éponyme), one of the four French Départements constituting the Région Brittany.

Valves under the name of Gwened, of Vennes or under other names was for a long time one of the capitals of the Royaume of Brittany, the Duché of Brittany and only capital of the Bro Waroch (Corresponds to the department of the morbihan) one of the old kingdoms of Brittany.

Its inhabitants is called Vannetai () S in French.

Geography

Valves, chief town of the Morbihan is located on the banks north of the Golfe of Morbihan, on the estuary of Marle.
Of this fact Vannes is at the same time in seaside and inside the grounds while being distant of 15 km of the Atlantic Ocean.
It is located on the highway axis Nantes/Brest (E60-N165) and is also connected to Rennes by a fast axis (N166 then N24). Valves is also on the line of TGV Paris - Quimper.

Of 1790 with 1982, Vannes is the chief town of the canton of Valve-Is, and since 1982 is the chief town of three cantons:

Demography

Starting from the figures of 2005, it does not act any more censuses but of estimates.

Colors= id: lightgrey been worth: Gray (0.9) id: darkgrey been worth: Gray (0.7) id: sfondo been worth: rgb (1,1,1) id: barred been worth: rgb (0.6, 0.7, 0.8)

ImageSize = width: 700 height: 300 PlotArea = left: 50 bottom: 50 signal: 30 right: 30 DateFormat = x.y Period = from: 0 till: 80000 TimeAxis = orientation: vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor: darkgrey increment: 20000 start: 0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor: lightgrey increment: 5000 start: 0 BackgroundColors = canvas: sfondo

BarData= bar: 1793 text: 1793 bar: 1800 bar: 1806 bar: 1821 bar: 1831 bar: 1836 text: 1836 bar: 1841 bar: 1846 bar: 1851 bar: 1856 bar: 1861 text: 1861 bar: 1866 bar: 1872 bar: 1876 bar: 1881 bar: 1886 text: 1886 bar: 1891 bar: 1896 bar: 1901 bar: 1906 bar: 1911 text: 1911 bar: 1921 bar: 1926 bar: 1931 bar: 1936 bar: 1946 text: 1946 bar: 1954 bar: 1962 bar: 1968 bar: 1975 bar: 1982 text: 1982 bar: 1990 bar: 1999 bar: 2005 text: 2005

PlotData= color: width barred: 14 align: left bar: 1793 from: 0 till: 9131 bar: 1800 from: 0 till: 9131 bar: 1806 from: 0 till: 10902 bar: 1821 from: 0 till: 11289 bar: 1831 from: 0 till: 10395 bar: 1836 from: 0 till: 11623 bar: 1841 from: 0 till: 11737 bar: 1846 from: 0 till: 12974 bar: 1851 from: 0 till: 12356 bar: 1856 from: 0 till: 14329 bar: 1861 from: 0 till: 14564 bar: 1866 from: 0 till: 14560 bar: 1872 from: 0 till: 14690 bar: 1876 from: 0 till: 17946 bar: 1881 from: 0 till: 19284 bar: 1886 from: 0 till: 20036 bar: 1891 from: 0 till: 21504 bar: 1896 from: 0 till: 22189 bar: 1901 from: 0 till: 23375 bar: 1906 from: 0 till: 23561 bar: 1911 from: 0 till: 23748 bar: 1921 from: 0 till: 21402 bar: 1926 from: 0 till: 22089 bar: 1931 from: 0 till: 22413 bar: 1936 from: 0 till: 24068 bar: 1946 from: 0 till: 28189 bar: 1954 from: 0 till: 28403 bar: 1962 from: 0 till: 30411 bar: 1968 from: 0 till: 36576 bar: 1975 from: 0 till: 40359 bar: 1982 from: 0 till: 42178 bar: 1990 from: 0 till: 45644 bar: 1999 from: 0 till: 51759 bar: 2005 from: 0 till: 54000

The statistics relating to the population, in the year 1999, were the following ones:

  • Total population: 54.773 inhabitants.

  • Population without double accounts: 51.759 inhabitants.
  • urban Unit: 60.062 inhabitants (made up of Valves and Saint-Ave).
  • urban Surface: 118.029 inhabitants.
The city is the second more populated of the department after Lorient and 7th of Brittany (on 1.498).

History

----

Origin of the name Valves

The Vénètes are two homonymous ancient people of which one lived the south of the Aremorica (Celtic Veneti). These Vénètes, powerful and influential maritime and commercial power, as later will be to it Venice or Saint-Malo, had a strong organization and was equipped with a senate and had in particular an important fleet to trade with British Isles and the Italy.

Jules César in the War of Gaules does not quote any capital for Vénètes, however Ptolémée in IIe century after J. - C. quotes Dariorigum (or Darioritum or Dartorigum ) as being the capital of Vénètes. It would have been named Venetia before. Venetia becomes Dariorigum under the Roman empire, then " " Vennes" in homage to Vénètes (See the Edict of Plessis-Macé: Confirmation of the privileges of Brittany by the King François September 1st, th and th 1532). Valves decides Djuened and is written Gwened in Breton and becomes later Vannes a few centuries.

Heraldic and currency

The armorial bearings of Valves are described as follows: of mouths to the busy, joined and buckled money hermine money, cravatée of hermine doubled of gold.

This blazon was recorded with the general armorial of France of 1696. The hermine was popularized by the duke Jean IV of Brittany which baptized of this name the castle that it builds in Vannes and the order of knighthood that it founded in 1381. It is in Vannes that was proclaimed in 1532, in front of king François Ier, the union of Brittany in France. The hermine became the symbol of fastening in Brittany.

The currency of Valves is " In my Vie" (Dam' m Buhez into Breton).

The duke Jean IV instituted, in 1381, the Breton chivalrous order of Hermine, downtown of Valves. The knights of the Order carried to the neck a collar to which hung a hermine with the naturalness that one sees in the blazon of the city. The currency HAS MY LIFE which was that of the Order, points out the historical fact whose Vannes was the theater.

Antiquity

Valves would have been founded it there has more than 2.000 years and would have named Darioritum under the Gallo-Roman time. but its identity and current name come more of the Vénètes, Gallic Peuple Armorican which occupied probably the territories between the Laïta, in the west and the Vilaine in the east (either about current the Département of Morbihan). So that into known as Jules César, the people vénète imposed his hegemony on the other people of the Armorican federation. This seafaring nation controlled many islands and of almost islands, and especially the trade towards the island of Brittany (today Great Britain) and the Scillies (the Cassitérides islands).

These relations enable them to obtain the intervention of quotas of the Breton cities against the Romans at the time of their conquest of Gaules. The answer of César is without nuance.
In 56 before J. - C., after one or more unfruitful campaigns due to impossibility of overcoming the Vénètes which fled by the sea when the combat turned to their disadvantage, of a spur barred with the other, César understood that it needed the control of the seas. As on its practice, it was pressed on a city close to its enemies, that of the Namnètes (they will give their name to Nantes and Nantes), which underwent the authority vénète and wished to be released some. Namnètes build a fleet to him with which it overcomes Vénètes in a dubious place (gulf of Quiberon, traict of Guérande, future gulf of Morbihan or other?). The survivors are massacred or reduced in Esclavage. Moreover, as the disappearance of the furnaces with salt at the 1st century attests some on the territory of Vénètes, it will be to them interdict to produce salt, which was one of the sources of their power.

Archaeological research could not highlight any occupation vénète former on arrival of the Romans on the site of Valves, but the district of the cathedral was not the subject yet of excavations and this site would have been most favourable with the establishment of a cutting off. In the actual position of knowledge, it is thus necessary to see the Romans like promoters of the new city of Darioritum on the hill of Boismoreau (current Saint-Patern district) shortly after their victory. It covers soon buildings and monuments necessary to any capital of city: forum with basilica, Temple S, villa S, etc

At the end of the 3rd century, like everywhere in the North-West of the Gaulle, the administrative, military and commercial disorganization of the Roman empire, but much more surely aggressions of pirates (Clippings?) and of uncontrolled bands (the Bagaudes) forced the Gallo-Roman inhabitants to take refuge behind an imposing wall made in top priority with the re-used elements of the public monuments demolished for the occasion, undoubtedly the only ones into hard and thus being able to deliver useful materials in quantity. This first enclosure built on a small rocky outcrop bordered of a marine lace, vis-a-vis the old center of Darioritum (40 ha), form the narrowed framework of city (5,5 ha) for more than thousand years, until worms the year 1380.

With 3rd and 4th centuries, like much regional metropolises, Darioritum changes its name and takes that of the people of which it is the capital. These toponymic changes intervened at one time when the solidity of the Roman Empire crumbled. One observes then, inter alia significant elements, a rebirth of the antiques Gallic divinities be local in the religious sculptures and the inscriptions dédicatoires. The name change of city undoubtedly raises a phenomenon of the same order, related to a resurgence of the old feelings of ethnic membership of the Gallic tribes.

Early middle ages

During first half of the 6th century, the Breton ones of the kingdom of Cornwall carried out by a chief of the name of Waroch seize the west of Vannetais, but not of the town of Valves which becomes a gallo-franque enclave. The territories under its control take the name of Bro-Waroch (which will evolve/move in Broërec) i.e. in French “country of Waroch”. In 567, the Broërec is detached from Cornwall to constitute a principality independent with the hands of a son of Waroch, the count Canao, who had gotten rid of his brothers. One among them, Macliau, survives and becomes with the assistance of the bishop Felix of Nantes, the first Breton bishop of Valves. Canao is killed with the combat by the Francs at the time of the revolt of Chramme against Clotaire. Macliau leaves its episcopal load then to assume that of count and dies while trying to control Cornwall against its heir legitimates into 577. Another Waroch, perhaps its son, succeed to him. This Waroch II takes finally the town of Valves into 578 and inflicts with the army Chilpéric come with the rescue a severe defeat close to the Vilaine, that it cannot exploit diplomatically. It benefits from it however to carry out many incursions into the Of Rennes one and the Nantes francs, in particular at the season of the grape harvest. Exasperated, the king of the Francs Gontran sends into 590 a punitive army carried out by Beppolen and Ebrachaire whose competition (as well as the trick of Waroch II) caused the final defeat, even if Ebrachaire could briefly take again Vannes with the Breton ones. It is on this occasion which the Regalis bishop ensured to be “under the very severe yoke of Breton” what implies that Vannetais did not estimate Bretons yet, unless it was not a careful declaration of fidelity in a time of military occupation.

At the beginning of the 8th century, the city and its country are directed by a certain count Ogier, perhaps gallo-franc. It made its intendant of Vannetais named Emilion which will become holy in Aquitaine.

In 753, the king of the Francs Pépin the Brief overcomes the Breton ones and takes Vannes. To contain the Breton ones, it organizes a zone-plug under military administration, the Marche of Brittany made up of Vannetais, Nantes, Of Rennes and an end of Maine and whose most famous holder (prefect or count of Walk) was the famous Roland de Roncevaux (death in 778). Valves was the capital with for prefect the count of origin austrasienne GUI (= Wido ), then its successors the Widonides. In 799, GUI and the counts under his command, whose his/her brother the count of Vannes Frodoald (= Hrodolt ) subjects the Breton kings. Guy II, probable nephew of the first GUI, holds the county of Valves from 813. The emperor Louis Débonnaire joins together in September 818 his army with Vannes (then often called Veneda or Venedia ) before launching it to the attack of the forces of the king Murman (= Morvan ) who had defied it.

In May 831, Débonnaire transfers the county from Valves of GUI II to Breton, the missus Nominoë promised with a glorious future, choice which translates a search for appeasing instead of the policy of confrontation which had preceded. Under the cane of Nominoë, Valves and all Brittany find their statute former to franques forwardings, but with a reinforced and unified administration. The Walk of Brittany disappears soon under the attacks from the armies from Nominoë, Erispoë and Solomon, which conquers it all entière.
Soon in open war with Charles the Bald person, Nominoë drives out about year 847 in Coetlouh, due to Simonie, four bishops that this one had named, of which the bishop of Susan Valves. Breton Courantguen succeeds to him as of 850. The county of Valves is conceded with Pascweten, son-in-law and adviser of the king Solomon. It however forms part of the conspiracy of the princes who cause the fall and the death of the king with Martyrdom in June 874. After which it enters in competition with Gurvant and leaves the life during this civil war. His/her brother asserts himself finally towards 890 and becomes the king Alain Large the. He makes his son Rudalt count de Vannes. But in 919 the beachcomber Norman carries it like the bishop holy martyr Bili. The cathedral is burnt.

The low Middle Ages

At the time of the War of succession of Brittany the city is given peacefully to Jean de Montfort at the time of his ride of 1341, then with Charles of Blois the following year when Montfort is made prisoner in Nantes. Robert d' Artois, Jeanne the Flame and the English troops of Edouard III take it by storm in August 1342 to lose it shortly after. D' Artois dies in October of the wounds which it receives while trying to take again Vannes. Piqué with sharp, the king of England Edouard III comes itself to direct his war and besieges the in December city with 12  500 soldiers. In January, the king of France Philippe VI approaches with 50  000 men. Valves is saved shock by the two papal legates Clément VI who obtain a 3 years truce concluded with Malestroit on January 19th, 1343. In spite of the oaths, the English troops enter the in September 1343 city. It remains Montfort. Captive Blois is neat there before being sent to the tower of London. As from 1362, the son of Jean de Montfort (Jean IV) makes his main home of it. It is from there that it leaves to overcome and kill with the combat its Charles candidate of Blois for the Bataille of Auray in 1364.

Of return of its last exile in England in 1379, Jean IV chooses Vannes for capital, in double surface by a new enclosure, there built its castle of Hermine and installs there the seat of the court and the ducal council. The States meet 19 times there, the Room of the accounts is created there and there sits until 1491-1499 as well as the Parliament of Brittany which becomes sovereign in 1485 (it remains in Vannes until in 1553, date on which Nantes and Rennes dispute it): Valves is the first capital of the Breton State and the seat of its higher administration. The city however remains of modest size.

In 1675, disorders burst in Brittany: it is the Révolte of the red Bonnets or revolt of the Stamped paper. In reprisals with the riots of Rennes, Louis XIV moves the seat of the Parlement of Brittany of Rennes in Vannes.

The return of the Parliament (the Of Rennes one call it the “exile”) to Vannes of 1675 to 1689 will cause such an surge of population that its town planning will be transformed by it.

Linguistics

At the time of the immigration of Breton the in Brittany, Vannes constituted a Gallo-Roman small island, which locally influenced the Breton one by a small number of loans to the Romance .

Thereafter, it bretonnisa at the end of the Early middle ages and remained a long time a bastion of the Breton whereas Saint-Brieuc for example, rocked with French and influenced his surroundings gradually.

Economy

If one estimates it in term of employment, the economy of the country vannetais is especially based on the tertiary sector. Industry is primarily fabrics of SME, the most important sectors being the agroalimentary one (160 company, 1.900 paid), the intermediate production of products (390 companies, 4.000 paid) and the water sport (90 company, 500 employment). Among the important companies one can quote:
  • Evialis (Guyomarch), agroalimentary;
  • CECAB, preserved vegetables;
  • Michelin, tire;
  • Multiplast, catamaran of race (for example Orange catamarans I and II);
  • Biro sport, board with veil, surfing, kayak.
Arrive then construction and finally the agriculture and the products of the sea.

Research is primarily public, via the Université of Brittany-South, nevertheless some SME of research developed in biochemistry (Archimex) and data processing.

The city has a delegation of the Chamber of commerce and industry of Morbihan.

Administration

Because of its statute of chief town of department and canton, Vannes concentrates the administrations:

  • prefecture of Morbihan;
  • General advice;
  • general Treasury.

Town hall

Since December 2006, the mayor is François Goulard.

Its predecessors were:

Famous characters

Brittonum Dux (dukes and kings de Bretagne)

  • Nominoë count de Vannes and king de Bretagne at the 9th century.

  • Pascweten count de Vannes and claiming with the throne of the kingdom of Brittany.
  • Alain {{Ier}} says the Large one, king de Bretagne.
  • Arthur III, duke of Brittany, known as the Constable of Richemont.
  • François {{Ier}} of Brittany (1414 with Valves-1450), duke of Brittany.

Characters of 20th and 21e centuries

  • Colonel Rémy (1904 with Valves-1984), resistant French at the time of the Second world war.

  • Alain Resnais (1922 in Vannes), realizer and scenario writer.
  • Yves Coppens (born in 1934 in Vannes), paleoanthropologist, member of the team which discovered Lucy, first relatively complete fossil of Australopithèque.
  • Patrice Loko (born in 1970), footballer of the team of France of 1993 to 1997, Vannetais since the end of its professional path.
  • Helene de Fougerolles (born in 1973 in Vannes), actress.
  • Louise Bourgoin (born in 1981 in Vannes), actress and “miss weather” of Channel +.
  • Sylvain Marveaux (born in 1986 in Vannes), footballer at the Stage Of Rennes.
  • Benoit Vaugrenard (born in 1982 in Vannes), professional cyclist, champion of France of CLM.

Characters of Fiction

  • Karadoc, knight of the Roundtable in the series Kaamelott is the knight of Valves. He is inspired by Caradoc, a semi-legendary ancestor of the kings of Gwent (Wales) alive during the 5th century. Caradog Freichfras is a knight of the Roundtable according to the legend and is the first sovereign of the Bro Waroch into 490. Karadoc becomes thus either a character of fiction but a sovereign historical character of Valves

Tourist monuments and places

Vannes is classified town of art and history.
  • the door and the street Saint-Vincent : it goes back to 1704.
  • the manor of Castle-Strapping man : the residence was built at the 15th century by Jean de Malestroit, chancellor of the duke of Brittany.
  • the cathedral built in 1020 by the Norman ones.
  • the ramparts with three turns: the Joliette tower, the tower Explosives magazine and the tower of the Constable.
  • the castle of Hermine builds by the duke Jean IV of Brittany at the 14th century.

Other tourist places:

Parks and green areas

The commune is a flowered city having obtained four flowers with the Concours of the cities and flowered villages.
  • Four places deserve the turning :
    • the garden of the Ramparts.
    • the garden of the castle of Hermine.
    • the garden of Limur.
    • the garden of floral collection of the Saltworks of Conleau.

Education

Secondary education

The colleges of Valves are the following:
  • College Alain-Rene-Lesage (general, technological).
  • College Charles-of-Gaulle (general).
  • Colleges private Saint-Paul and Saint-Georges (general and technological).
  • private College Saint-François-Xavier; where the writer Octave Mirbeau made his studies.
  • private College Saint-Joseph (technological).
  • College Jean-Guéhenno (technological and professional).
  • private College Notre-Dame it Ménimur (general and technological).

Higher education

  • scientific CPGE of the college Alain-Rene-Lesage (PTSI, Pt, MPSI, MP).

  • literary CPGE (hypokhâgne and khâgne B-L) of the College Saint-François-Xavier.
  • STI Brittany (school of engineers, in alternation).
  • the ENSIbs, school of engineers

The university of Brittany-South (UBS), created in February 1995, is located between several cities of the department: Valves, Lorient and Pontivy. the formations present on Vannes are:

  • Right faculty, economic scenes and of management (DSEG);

  • faculty Letters, social sciences (LSHS);
  • Sciences faculty and engineerings (IF);
  • IUT proposes formations professionnalisantes (vat + 2 and vat + 3), in the fields of management, the trade, data processing and the statistics and decisional data processing.

One can also notice the presence of establishments of research gathering various laboratories, the research center Yves Coppens, located on the university campus of Tohannic, in the east of Valves.

  • IFAT : Artistic and Technical training institute, training in architecture of interior design decoration and visual communication

Sporting clubs

Random links:Toyota Tercel | Cagli | Palate of Pharo | Autonomy and solidarity for the students | I Santo California

© 2007-2008 speedlook.com; article text available under the terms of GFDL, from fr.wikipedia.org